David Cameron rejects call to return Falkland Islands to Argentina
British prime minister says he will 'do everything to protect interests of islanders' following demand by Argentina's president
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Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: critics suggest Argentina's president is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home. Photograph: Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images
David Cameron has said he will "do everything" to protect the interests of the Falkland islanders following a demand by Argentina's populist president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to hand back the islands, 30 years after Britain and Argentina went to war over them.
In a stinging letter to Cameron, Fernández urges the UK to abide by a 1960 United Nations resolution urging member states to "end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations".
Britain should begin negotiations over the sovereignty of the islands, which were "forcibly stripped" from Argentina exactly 180 years ago, on 3 January 1833, she tells the prime minister.
But a spokesman for Cameron said that the people of the Falklands had shown "a clear desire to remain British" and the prime minister would "do everything to protect the interests of the Falklands islanders". The islanders are due to vote in a referendum in March that is expected to give overwhelming backing for the territory to remain British. The prime minister's spokesman said the Argentinian government should abide by the result.
The Foreign Office (FCO) also chimed in, rejecting Kirchner's demands in forceful terms on Twitter. It said: "The people of the Falklands are British and have chosen to be so. They remain free to choose their own futures and have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN charter. There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. There can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of theFalkland Islands unless and until such time as the islanders so wish."
Barry Elsby, a member of the islands' legislative assembly, dismissed Fernández's claim that the Falklands was a UK colony. "We understand that the Argentine government has put out a letter that both calls our home a colony and claims that the United Kingdom is ignoring United Nations general assembly resolutions," he said.
"We are not a colony. Our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice," he said. "Unlike the government of Argentina, the United Kingdom respects the right of our people to determine our own affairs, a right that is enshrined in the UN charter and which is ignored by Argentina."
Fernández's letter is published as an advert (pdf) in Thursday's Guardian and other newspapers. Fernández acidly notes that the "Malvinas" are 8,700 miles away from London and claims, controversially, that the Royal Navy expelled the Argentinians who originally lived on the remote south Atlantic territory. Replacing them with British settlers was, she says, a "blatant exercise in 19th-century colonialism".
Fernández's diplomatic broadside follows the British government's decision last month to name a large frozen chunk of Antarctica after the Queen – a gesture viewed in Buenos Aires as provocative. Argentina also lays claim to what is now Queen Elizabeth Land, as well as to other south Atlantic territories including South Georgia and the uninhabited South Sandwich Islands.
The president and her advisers seem convinced that by keeping the issue of the Falklands in the public eye she can embarrass London into eventual negotiations. In her letter, Fernández claims not only Latin America but also the "vast majority of peoples and governments around the world" embrace Argentina's claim and "reject colonialism".
Critics suggest that Fernández, an unashamed populist and nationalist, is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home. The president's approval rating is sagging ahead of mid-term legislative elections in October. Argentinians support the "Malvinas" cause, which is written into the constitution. But they are also worried about pressing economic problems such as inflation, rising crime and corruption.
The FCO disputes Fernández's claim that Britain kicked out the islands' original Argentinian inhabitants. It says there was no civilian population on the island in 1833, with the Royal Navy expelling an Argentinian military garrison that had arrived three months earlier.
